When you alienate people by being awkward, it's bad for Google's brand.

Further Reading

If you must record touching landmark moments, Glass isn't the best choice.

Many months after the release of Google Glass to developers and early-adopters, Google is finally starting to suss out the inherent social awkwardness of the product. The company has released an official set of do's and don'ts for participants in the Explorer program, some of which amount to a reminder that manners and basic courtesy still exist for the technologically elite.

Society at large developed a term for people who insert Glass into situations where it is not welcome: "Glassholes." Glassholes are eternally committing faux pas with their face-computers. They make people around them feel watched and unsafe, or else ignored in favor of the glory of the tiny floating screen that only the Glass user can see.

The history of the term is a bit difficult to trace in relation to the actual device, but an early mention was on the Twitter account of @StartupLJackson. TechCrunch followed up with a Glasshole piece in January 2013, and the Glass-wearers have slowly permeated since, and sadly, Glasshole behavior along with it.

Before now, Google remained mum on the etiquette of usage, despite overwhelming evidence that if it were to find a place in our workflow, we needed some rules—fast. Schmidt did make some comments at Harvard in April 2013, when he remarked that giving voice commands to Glass when in public was wildly awkward. Schmidt also noted that there were probably going to be places where Glass was entirely unwelcome, just as one might get the side-eye for holding a smartphone in an obvious photo- or video-taking orientation in a bathroom.

Among the key pieces of Google's advice for its Glass Explorers:

Do: "Ask for permission. Standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people while recording them through Glass is not going to win you any friends"

Google could have cut out the whole part about "while recording them through Glass." Standing and staring at anyone at a distance is likely to be taken as a sign of aggression among homo sapiens. But yes, especially don't try it with Google Glass.

Don't: "Glass out… If you find yourself staring off into the prism for long periods of time, you’re probably looking pretty weird to the people around you."

Further Reading

Looking at that tiny screen, you'll try not to go cross-eyed. You might fail.

Just as it's generally considered poor form to stand stooped gazing into your smartphone screen while others are trying to engage with you, it's not acceptable to roll your head backward and let your eyes focus into the Glass screen plane mid-conversation. Not only are you offending them, but you appear "pretty weird!" Stop it! People are staring. They think you're going catatonic or about to have a seizure. Eyes off that Glass screen, and there especially shouldn't be any long reading sessions ("Don’t read War and Peace on Glass," admonishes Google).

Don't: "Be creepy or rude (aka, a 'Glasshole'). In places where cell phone cameras aren’t allowed, the same rules will apply to Glass. If you’re asked to turn your phone off, turn Glass off as well."

This is the paramount piece of advice: while it's unadvised to creepshot the unsuspecting, it's definitely a bad idea to charge in somewhere where your cell phone shouldn't be with something potentially much weirder and off-putting, like a face-mounted camera that allows for surreptitious activation. Have some sense.

Of course, Google has a business interest in keeping its Glass Explorers off the creep radar: if the product were blacklisted as too awkward for the public sphere, that could hurt its progress. As someone perpetually unnerved by the creepy potential of Google Glass, I'm heartened to see the company itself step in and give some guidance on what's acceptable. Whether it will get cooperation is another matter.